Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 27, No. 546.
Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London
www.digitalhumanities.org/humanist
Submit to: humanist at lists.digitalhumanities.org
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 06:58:52 +0000
From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty at mccarty.org.uk>
Subject: simulation?
What is a (computational) simulation? How does simulation differ from
modelling? What is the point of simulating? Where does one find
simulations in digital humanities? What is their role in these disciplines?
So far my answers have been as follows:
(1) A simulation is a computational analogue of a real-world system
based on knowledge of this system's components and how they interact.
(2) "Model" used loosely can denote a simulation, but where they differ
a model is based on correspondence between its results and the object
modelled; a simulation is based on correspondence between its processes
and those of the simulated system.
(3) The point of a simulation is to study otherwise unknowable or
unobservable behaviours of the real-world system.
(4) In digital humanities so far simulations are found in virtual-world
constructs; some of these, such as Carolyn Lougee's "A World-Be
Gentleman" (1983) have been around for a long time and do not
necessarily involve visualisation. Prose- and poetry-writing software,
tried out in the 1960s and later, simulated human authorship; these
provoked some violent reactions, e.g. from F. R. Leavis.
(5) The roles of simulation in the humanities are in teaching (e.g. Lougee's
program) and in speculative and counterfactual probing of the unknown.
Comments on any or all of these?
I have a small bibliography of writings on the subject, almost all from
the physical sciences, and would greatly appreciate suggestions for
further reading.
Yours,
WM
--
Willard McCarty (www.mccarty.org.uk/), Professor, Department of Digital
Humanities, King's College London, and Research Group in Digital
Humanities, University of Western Sydney